Ortega regime seizes Nicaragua’s Matagalpa seminary

The Diocese of Matagalpa has been particularly hard-hit in the crackdown against the Catholic Church.

The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega confiscated the seminary of the Matagalpa diocese on Monday, as persecution of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua continues.

A liturgy at the La Purisima Seminary in Managua, Nicaragua. Credit: La Purisima/Facebook.

According to local sources, the San Luis de Gonzaga Seminary had around 60 seminarians. About half were present when police arrived at the site - the others had not yet returned from vacation.

The seminarians who were present were sent home by police.

Local sources told The Pillar that no decision has been made about how the seminarians will continue their formation. It is expected that they will move to the interdiocesan seminary in Managua.

The San Luis de Gonzaga Seminary had served seminarians not only from Matagalpa, but also from other dioceses, including Siuna, whose bishop, Isidoro Mora, is currently in exile. Seminarians frequently studied philosophy in Matagalpa and then went to the Managua interdiocesan seminary.

The seizing of the seminary is the latest step in the crackdown against the Catholic Church in Nicaragua.

While Nicaragua has lost about 20% of its total clergy to exile during the regime’s ongoing persecution, the Matagalpa diocese has been hit particularly hard, losing over 60% of its clergy, including its bishop and most of its diocesan curia.

The embattled diocese was home to Bishop Rolando Álvarez, widely seen as one of the most stringent critics of Ortega. His criticism of the regime led to his arrest in August 2022, and his subsequent 25-year prison sentence on charges of conspiracy.

After beginning his prison sentence, Álvarez was exiled to Rome in January 2024 and has lived there ever since.

The Matagalpa diocese had experienced a vocation boom that started when Álvarez was made bishop in 2011. Before Álvarez was exiled, the seminary had more than 100 seminarians.

However, the persecution led many seminarians to leave under threats from the regime. Many others went into exile. Álvarez himself revealed in a recent interview that there are at least five seminarians from his diocese now studying in various seminaries in Spain and that he visits them often.

Last week, the Ortega regime also confiscated the Matagalpa diocesan center La Cartuja. The center had served as the main retreat house for the diocese, as well as a meeting center for clergy and a site for other diocesan activities.

Local faithful discovered that the diocesan center had been confiscated when a group arrived at the place to start a weekend retreat and saw that the police had taken the site, forcing employees and participants who had already arrived to leave.

La Cartuja had previously been attacked in 2018. Amid nationwide protests against the Nicaraguan dictatorship, a group of 20 paramilitary armed with machetes went to the diocesan center on June 26, subdued the watchman, damaged the property and stole numerous objects.

Persecution against the Catholic Church in Nicaragua began during the 2018-2019 protests against the Ortega regime. The persecution has intensified in the past two years, particularly after Pope Francis in December published a pastoral letter to the Nicaraguan people.

In the letter, the pope encouraged trust amid difficulty, saying “precisely in the most difficult moments, when it becomes humanly impossible to understand what God wants from us, we are called not to doubt His care and mercy.”

Since the start of the persecution against the Catholic Church, the Nicaraguan regime has forced the closure of dozens of Catholic TV and radio stations, the dissolution of the legal structures of religious congregations, Catholic universities, and Catholic foundations, and the seizure of their properties.

More than 250 clergy and religious have been forced into exile, including four bishops and almost one-fifth of the country’s priests.

On November 12, 2024, the president of the Nicaraguan bishops’ conference, Bishop Carlos Herrera, OFM, was forced into exile after criticizing a pro-regime mayor during Sunday Mass in the Jinotega cathedral.

In recent months, the regime has faced criticism for forbidding priests from accessing public hospitals, not allowing them to visit people who have requested pastoral visits or the reception of the sacraments of anointing of the sick or penance.